


Dinner of Deception

by XxXxDarkVampirexXxX



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, M/M, Murder Mystery, Pre-Relationship, Pre-Slash, Rating May Change
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-07
Updated: 2018-02-01
Packaged: 2018-09-15 12:56:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 18,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9236141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/XxXxDarkVampirexXxX/pseuds/XxXxDarkVampirexXxX
Summary: A dinner party gone wrong. A group of Light and Dark members gather for a celebratory dinner, which is cut short when one of them turns up dead. How did this happen? Who did this? Are they dining with a murderer? Well...yes, but would the Dark really be so eager to break the peace treaty? Would anyone?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So yeah, yet another WIP. I can't help it. Before you start getting mad, I do already have most of this fic planned out. I think. I don't believe it will go above twenty chapters, and I'm making notes on chapter ten so far, so there's that. This is an idea I've always wanted to do, in any fandom or context, and this one seemed fitting. Thank you to my buddy for helping me hash out some of the ideas.  
> Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters...

After Dumbledore's death at the hands of the Dark Lord Voldemort in Harry Potter's sixth year at Hogwarts, tension between the two sides finally reached a breaking point, and a war broke out, leading to countless deaths. Maybe it was because Dumbledore and his direct influence was finally out of the way, but it really didn't take both sides very long to realize that what they were doing was, if they were being honest, pointless.

So, two years after Dumbledore's death, when Harry was eighteen, he and the Dark Lord finally met face to face in an attempt to negotiate terms.

It took them just over a year to come to an agreement, and for a peace treaty to be signed.

Lucius Malfoy then became the Minister of Magic, while Voldemort, now going by the name of Marvolo Slytherin, took on the position of Headmaster of Hogwarts, much to the concern of many, though it appeared unneeded.

Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley got jobs at the Ministry, but Harry, having no desire to fight anymore, used some of the money he'd been left by his parents and godfather to open a bakery in Diagon Alley. It did quite well, and he was finally happy with how his life was going.

Ginny Weasley joined a Quidditch team as a reserve, Neville Longbottom continued his study on Herbology, no matter what his gran had to say about it, while Luna Lovegood began travelling in a search for more magical creatures.

Remus Lupin, with Harry's help, had opened up a used bookstore in Diagon Alley, which did good, steady business, now that the laws against werewolves had changed for the better. Fred and George Weasley's joke shop was more popular than ever, with thoughts of expansion, while their older brother Bill made plans to return to Egypt for work.

Minerva McGonagall and Severus Snape had continued their positions at Hogwarts, despite the new Headmaster and, oddly enough, despite the few problems they'd had in the beginning, things had settled down, and were actually going fairly well.

Draco Malfoy, meanwhile, had decided to continue his studies, while his mother Narcissa worked at Harry's bakery, the business woman behind his baking talent, because, as it turned out, she was just very fond of his sweets.

For the first time in a long while, things were actually going okay in the Wizarding world. But what no one realized, was that that was soon about to change.

On a cloudy day near the end of October, about two years after the signing of the peace treaty, twenty four people were surprised to receive something unexpected in the mail.

Delivered by a large, grey feathered owl, was a mysterious dark envelope with their name written on it in gold ink, and sealed with golden wax, imprinted with the image of what appeared to be a coyote. In the envelope was a thick sheet of parchment-a letter, each one identical.

This letter was an invitation, politely encouraging and requesting their presence at a dinner party being hosted at Coyote Manor on the thirtieth of October, as thanks for the peace brought back to their world. It was signed by 'Lord Coyote'.

All twenty four people stood there, staring down at the letter in their hands in surprise. All of them were thinking variations of the exact same thing: What the heck is this?


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A dinner party gone wrong. A group of Light and Dark members gather for a celebratory dinner, which is cut short when one of them turns up dead. How did this happen? Who did this? Are they dining with a murderer? Well...yes, but would the Dark really be so eager to break the peace treaty? Would anyone?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Glad you're enjoying this so far. I don't plan on chapters being particularly long, by the way. I'm going for a very to the point sort of thing here. Or at least trying to. Thank you to all readers so far! And an extra thanks to those who left a comment!

At six in the evening, on the thirtieth of October, the invited guests gathered outside Coyote Manor. Everyone was dealing with various degrees of suspicion, and were quite surprised to see one another, not having realized just how many of them had been invited, and from both sides of the war, no less. There were twenty three of them, and though they didn't realize it, one of their number was missing. Someone had decided not to attend.

Standing outside under the dark clouds, the brisk wind whipping around them, they whispered quietly with one another, some of them clutching their wands tightly, eyes darting left and right, keeping a certain number of them within view.

After ten minutes of awkward and tense waiting, the front doors finally slid open silently, revealing their mysterious host to them. He was an elderly, clean looking man, dressed in sharp, dark robes with a golden trim. His hair was grey, and fell past his shoulders, but was as neat as the beard on his chin.

He smiled at them gently, blue eyes appearing pleased. "Good evening," he greeted politely. "You may call me Lord Coyote. I must apologize for the wait. Please, come in." Gesturing at the doors, he stepped aside, and bowed slightly.

The guests exchanged glances and, some more cautious than others, they all made their way up the stairs, through the doorway, and into the entrance hall. Once they were all inside, the doors shut, and Lord Coyote moved to the front of the group, leading them along through his home.

It was a very large manor, almost unnecessarily so, especially for what appeared to be a single person, but it was decorated quite tastefully. Though it didn't escape their notice that there didn't appear to be any portraits along the walls, which was certainly very strange for an old manor like this, particularly to those who lived in manors themselves.

The group was led to a very big dining hall, lined with large windows, the thick, burgundy curtains pulled aside to reveal the lovely view outside. The clouds had darkened further. In the center of the hall, sat a massive table that could easily seat all twenty three of them with room to spare.

Lord Coyote, still smiling genially, guided the 'Light' members to sit on the left side of the table, and the 'Dark' on the right, facing one another. Once more exchanging glances, they shrugged inwardly and sat where told.

Harry Potter found himself across Marvolo Slytherin, Hermione Granger across Severus Snape, Ron Weasley across Lucius Malfoy, Luna Lovegood across Narcissa Malfoy, Neville Longbottom across Draco Malfoy, Ginny Weasley across Blaise Zabini, Remus Lupin across Fenrir Greyback, Bill Weasley across Theodore Nott, Fred Weasley across Rodolphus Lestrange, George Weasley across Rabastan Lestrange, Nymphadora Tonks across Bellatrix Lestrange, and Minerva McGonagall found herself facing no one. Alastor Moody was to be sitting beside her, but for reasons unknown to the rest of them, he hadn't arrived.

The vast majority of them were rather uncomfortable to be sitting across who they were, but with few they _would_ be comfortable with there, they remained where they were, greeting the one before them stiffly.

Lord Coyote either didn't sense the tension, or chose to ignore it, and continued smiling. "Dinner will be served momentarily," he informed them. "Until then, please do settle down and relax." He left the room.

An awkward silence fell. No one was sure if they wanted to break it, or what they could even say to do so. As the current 'leaders' of both sides, Harry and Marvolo decided to take the lead here as well, and eventually began to speak themselves.

"Harry."

"Marvolo."

"How have you been doing recently? It has been some time now, since we last spoke."

"Since the treaty signing two years ago, and I can't complain. What about yourself? How is life as Headmaster treating you?"

"As you said, I have nothing to complain about."

Perhaps encouraged by her friend, Hermione looked at the man seated across her, and smiled somewhat tentatively.

"G-good evening, Professor Snape."

The man inclined his head. "Miss Granger."

"I, er, heard you were still teaching, sir?"

"Potions, yes. And you are still in the Ministry?"

"Yes, sir."

Severus nearly rolled his eyes. "This sirring is giving me a headache. Use my name."

Hermione nearly smiled. Their old professor was as blunt as always. "Then I'll ask for you to do the same, Severus."

"As you wish, Hermione."

Next to them, Ron and Lucius deliberately ignored one another, avoiding even looking at each other.

"Hello, Mrs Malfoy. Did you know your personality wards away Snuffle McWidgets?"

Narcissa smiled, despite not knowing what the girl was even talking about. "Good evening, Miss Lovegood. I must say, I am pleased to hear that."

"Malfoy."

"Longbottom," the blond sneered in return.

Next to them, Ginny batted her eyelashes at Blaise, who smirked cockily at the sight, clearly pleased with the girl's attention on him. Remus just tried to avoid Fenrir's gaze, the older werewolf eyeing him intensely, and beside them, Bill, and a rather uncomfortable Theodore, greeted one another politely, but said little else.

Fred and George were leaning into one another as they peered at Rodolphus and Rabastan, who were staring back at them. They had greeted one another, but hadn't progressed past that just yet. Everyone knew the twins were pranksters, and the Lestrange brothers had no desire to end up the victims of their jokes tonight.

"Ahh, my precious wittle neice!"

Tonks glared at the woman across her. "Ahh, my insane old aunt!"

McGonagall, sitting beside Tonks, just sighed. This was going to be a very long night...

Lord Coyote returned to the room, still smiling, seemingly pleased that they were interacting with one another, but as dinner was served, he didn't bother sitting down himself. He examined them all, one by one, closely, but said nothing himself.

Everyone began to eat, falling into casual conversations with their neighbours, as they enjoyed the rich, delicious food, no one realizing their good time was not meant to last. None of them noticed that their host had not joined them at the table.

Things were going well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Kudos?


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A dinner party gone wrong. A group of Light and Dark members gather for a celebratory dinner, which is cut short when one of them turns up dead. How did this happen? Who did this? Are they dining with a murderer? Well...yes, but would the Dark really be so eager to break the peace treaty? Would anyone?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo. A few people have brought up that this reminds them of Clue, so I just thought I'd say I've never played that before, and know basically nothing about it. Sooo, yeah. Thank you to all readers so far, and an extra thanks to those who commented!

Perhaps an hour or so later, Luna excused herself from the table, needing to use the bathroom, and quietly made her way out of the dining hall. Some noticed her leave and absently made note of it, others, who were too focused on their food or conversation, didn't even realize she had left.

Dinner continued for the rest of them, as the food and drink caused them to relax and open up a little with one another. Not enough to engage with select people at the table, but enough to at least ease their caution a little.

Another half hour passed, and once they all finished eating, their host returned to the hall, and coaxed them all to their feet, before escorting them to a large parlour of sorts, the room filled with couches, and chairs, and tables. This room was decorated as tastefully as the rest of the manor, and seemed just as unnecessarily large.

"Please sit," Lord Coyote encouraged. "Take the time to relax and mingle," he smiled. "There is no need to rush off. Tonight should be a night of no worry. It should be a night of thanks. For all of you."

Finding no reason to deny that exactly, the group did just that, and settled down. Though some were still rather cautious about certain others in the room.

It didn't take Harry and Narcissa long to begin discussing how business was going. They'd had a bit of a scare last month, when someone had attempted to sue them. An old fashioned Pureblood who had never gotten over the end of the war and the signing of the peace treaty hadn't been very pleased to learn Harry Potter was the one making the sweets they'd been enjoying. Luckily, with Lucius as Minister and his wife working for Harry himself, they had been able to solve things quickly and quietly.

As the two spoke, Remus joined them, trying to avoid Fenrir, who kept staring at him eerily. Intrigued, because he really had no idea what the young man had been doing since the treaty signing, Marvolo decided to join their conversation as well, which soon changed topics to Hogwarts, and the changes that had been made since he had taken over.

The Houses and Sorting had remained the same, but he had been and still was trying to get the children to not only display House pride, but treat the other Houses with respect. The Gryffindor Slytherin rivalry was well known, and he was struggling to quell the damage done.

Other than that, some of the professors and classes had been changed. Trelawney had been sacked, as had Binns. Hagrid and a second professor both taught Care of Magical Creatures, with the witch teaching the younger years, and the half giant the older ones. Muggle Studies was now a mandatory class for all years, but so was the new History of Magic, which was no longer only about the Goblin Rebellion.

As they went on discussing the changes, Hermione and Severus were seated not too far away, in the midst of a conversation of their own. They were speaking of a potion the man had been working on for some time now, one he believe he was finally near completing, and the witch was expressing her interest in it.

"I mean, I _did_ brew the Polyjuice Potion in second year," she was saying.

Severus raised a brow. "Did you really? Ah, then it seems you were the one who stole from my personal stores."

Hermione blinked, and then paled. "Ah...whoops?"

A few feet away from those two, Ginny and Blaise were flirting with one another, while Tonks and Bellatrix continued to argue.

In the far corner of the parlour, Fred and George were seated, their heads together, whispering and shooting odd looks over at the Lestrange brothers who were directly opposite them, across the room. The two of them were doing the exact same thing towards the twins, their eyes narrowed.

Lucius and Bill meanwhile were, surprisingly, having a discussion about Egypt. It was odd for everyone to be seeing a Malfoy and Weasley speaking calmly, but it wasn't at all shocking that it was Bill, of all people. He seemed to be able to get along with everyone.

"Are you planning on returning there, then?" the older man was saying.

Bill frowned slightly, and crossed his arms across his chest. "I _was_ making plans to do that, but honestly, I'm not sure. I feel as if I've done all I can there, you know?" He sighed softly. "My brother Charlie and I have been talking about this recently, actually. He's been in Romania for years, is there again now, working with dragons, and he's been thinking about heading east to China or Japan, because they have so many types of dragons he's never seen before. I've been considering switching areas as well."

"Where do you see yourself going, then?" asked Lucius curiously.

Bill hummed in thought. "I was thinking either west to Mexico or South America, or maybe east to India. I'm surprised you're so interested though, if I'm being honest."

Lucius cracked a little smile, not at all holding it against the younger man. "Truth be told, I wished to become a Curse Breaker when I was younger, however, my father insisted I got into politics instead. The same thing happened to Cissa," he said, nodding towards his wife, who was still sitting with Harry, Marvolo, and Remus. "She wished to become a Healer, but was instead told to study business while having and taking care of our son." He shrugged rather elegantly. "Times were different back then, arguing against our parents would have gotten us disowned, like Sirius Black. Still, neither of us lost our interest."

Neville and Theodore were sitting together not too far away, quietly speaking of how the former's studying was going. It was Neville's goal to teach Herbology at Hogwarts one day, and Theo was listening curiously, he himself still not sure of what he wanted to do with his own life. Becoming a teacher was always something that had lingered in the back of his mind, but his father had hardly encouraged it, and not being much of a talker, he'd never really had the chance to mention it to anyone.

Ron and Draco were standing with their arms crossed over their chests, on opposite ends of the room, deliberately ignoring everyone else, feeling as if they had been betrayed. McGonagall, meanwhile, surveyed the scene in a mixture of amusement and pride. Well, for the most part.

Lord Coyote watched them all with a smile, and then left the room, everyone too caught up in what they were doing to even notice him leave...

A few minutes passed, before Ginny headed off to find a bathroom, and she had only been gone for a few minutes when they heard her suddenly begin to scream.

Shocked, Harry, the Weasleys, Hermione, Severus, McGonagall, Remus, Tonks, Neville, Marvolo, Lucius, and Narcissa rushed out of the room, surprised and worried, while the others just stayed back in the parlour.

It didn't take them long to find the red haired girl. She was standing outside what appeared to be a sitting room, pale and trembling. Her head snapped up when she heard them approaching and, eyes wide and filled with fear, she pointed into the room soundlessly.

They neared the doorway to look in, and froze.

Laying on the dark, wooden floor, in a pool of blood, was a girl. Her skin was pale, her blond hair tangled around her, her blue eyes wide, dark, unseeing. She wasn't moving.

It was Luna.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...Comments? Kudos?


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A dinner party gone wrong. A group of Light and Dark members gather for a celebratory dinner, which is cut short when one of them turns up dead. How did this happen? Who did this? Are they dining with a murderer? Well...yes, but would the Dark really be so eager to break the peace treaty? Would anyone?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo! I'd comment on what happened in the last chapter, buuut I can't. Thank you to all readers so far, and an extra thanks to those who left a comment...questioning my sanity on killing off Luna or not!

There was a very long silence, before those who weren't there were quickly called to join the rest of them. Narcissa, perhaps because of her medical background, was able to move first. She approached Luna and knelt down beside her, just shy of the blood pool. Pulling out her wand, she ran it over the pale girl's body, from her head, down to her shoe clad feet, and then bowed her own head. After a moment, she raised it, and turned to look at the rest of them, who were watching her, waiting.

Slowly, she shook her head. It was confirmed. Luna Lovegood was dead.

Harry, emerald eyes wide, stumbled back in shock, nearly tripping over Marvolo's shoe, the man grabbing hold of him to keep him on his feet, his own crimson eyes locked on Luna's form. Hermione's knees buckled, and it was Snape who reached out to her, his hands on her shoulders, holding her up. Ginny broke the silence by releasing a sudden sob, and Bill moved around the others to get to her immediately, taking hold of her, trying to make sure his baby sister was okay. Everyone else just stared in shock, no one able to believe what exactly they were seeing.

Ron saw red. "You!" he exclaimed. "One of you did this!"

The 'Dark' quickly denied having anything to do with this. They barely even knew the girl, even Draco, Theo, and Blaise, who had attended Hogwarts with her, though they had been in different years and Houses. But Ron didn't care.

"It has to be one of you!" he yelled loudly. "There's no way she could have done this to herself! And we sure as fuck didn't do this! You're Dark! You're evil!" He just kept going off, kept yelling, kept accusing.

"Enough!" Harry and Hermione suddenly cried out in unison.

Ron fell silent, but the glare on his face didn't fade. "What!?" he questioned.

"We have to figure out what to do," said Hermione, trying her hardest not to just break down crying. "Do-do we contact the Ministry? The-the Aurors?"

It was Harry who replied to that. "We have the Minister right here," he pointed out, nodding towards Lucius. "And Tonks and Ron are both Aurors, right?"

Though everyone knew, that while he was only the Headmaster, Marvolo was the one in charge here. He was the leader here, and he was not very happy right now. His crimson eyes were narrowed dangerously. "Narcissa, perform a proper medical scan," he ordered.

The woman inclined her head and returned to Luna's side to do so, once more scanning her body, though she used a different spell. They were all quiet while the spell did its work, curious and worried about what it was going to reveal.

"It was a Severing Charm," the woman said finally. "Three of them. One to the throat, one to the chest, and one to the back. She bled out." Her voice lowered until it was barely more than a whisper. "This was no accident."

* * *

Unsure of what else to do with her, but not wanting to just leave her there, they moved Luna to one of the bedrooms, setting her down on the bed gently, before leaving the room, warding the door behind them so no one could enter. Tonks and Ron checked out the room the girl had been found in, but they discovered nothing, not even a magical signature.

Once they all gathered in the parlour again, it was Marvolo who spoke first, insisting Priori Incantatem be cast with everyone's wands to see if one of them did this. But, as expected, another argument broke out. Ron didn't want to do this.

"Why should _my_ wand be checked! I didn't do anything!"

Hermione blinked, surprised by the indignation. "Ron...you're an Auror, surely you know this is needed to eliminate suspects?"

While Harry knew Ron was just acting like this because a good friend had...had died, Harry was starting to feel very frustrated, and snapped. "Then give your wand to Tonks, or Bill, or Professor McGonagall or something, since you're having so much trouble believing what the 'Dark' are saying!"

Ron whipped around to face him. "Why are you defending them!?"

Because there was no way anyone wanted another war, right? There was no way the 'Dark' would break the treaty, right? Marvolo and Harry sure as hell didn't have anything to do with this, and as the ones who signed the treaty in the first place, it was obvious they wanted to find out just what was going on, more than anyone else in the room did.

Ginny however, wasn't able to handle the stress of what was happening, and what she had seen. "I just want to go home!" she cried.

Bill, being the oldest brother here, agreed that he would take her. He was concerned for the girl, and knew that her staying just wasn't going to be a good idea. With both their wands clear, and neither of them having had any reason to harm Luna, Bill wrapped an arm around his little sister and led her away...

Only to return to the parlour a few minutes later, a confused frown on his face.

"The front door won't open," he informed them. "No spells seem to be working on it either."

Well that certainly caught everyone's attention. They were on their feet instantly, checking things out for themselves, trying to find a way out. But what they ended up discovering, was hardly encouraging.

The windows and doors leading outside didn't open, no matter what spell was cast on them, or how much they tried to physically break them, or unlatch them. There was no floo powder for the fireplaces, they couldn't Apparate, or create Portkeys, or send a Patronus, or even call upon House Elves.

Everyone paused in place, exchanging troubled looks, every single one of them finally coming to the same conclusion: they were trapped.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Kudos?


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A dinner party gone wrong. A group of Light and Dark members gather for a celebratory dinner, which is cut short when one of them turns up dead. How did this happen? Who did this? Are they dining with a murderer? Well...yes, but would the Dark really be so eager to break the peace treaty? Would anyone?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo! I'm really getting into this now! Thank you to all readers so far, and an extra thanks to those who left a comment!

They decided to split up into groups of twos, and spend the next hour or so exploring the manor to try and find a way out, while also looking for their host. They hadn't seem him for a while now, since he had left them in the parlour, they realized, and they needed to find out what he knew about Luna, if anything.

As the two leaders, Harry and Marvolo headed off together, wands in hand. They didn't speak at first, both too angered by what had happened to engage in conversations or small talk.

They just walked in silence, side by side, pausing only when they reached doors and windows, checking everything. They entered every room they came across, opened every door, checked each wall, but found nothing.

"I can't believe this happened," Harry muttered, half to himself. "I thought all of this was over! I thought I wasn't going to have to worry about this stuff anymore!" He stopped in place. "I thought we were safe."

Marvolo released a soft sigh, and stopped too, turning to face the young man. "It certainly is odd," he agreed quietly. "While things have not reached that ideal level we have been wanting, they are better than they have been in a very long time. There are problems, admittedly, but for something like this to happen? We should have considered it."

But now Harry frowned, and looked up. "Why _didn't_ we consider it?" he questioned. "Half of us here, at the very least, should have questioned that invitation. But we didn't, did we? I know I didn't. Did you?"

Crimson eyes narrowed as the Dark Lord thought and understood what the young man was saying. "No, I did not," he replied quietly. And now that he thought about it, that was most definitely odd, not only for him and Harry, but for a few others as well. He set a hand on the young man's shoulder. "Come, the hour is nearly up. We will have to return to the others soon."

Nodding, Harry resumed walking, Marvolo beside him, his large hand resting on his back, the two falling into silence once more...

* * *

The group regathered in the parlour to discuss their findings, and what they learned was hardly a relief. There was no way out, and more, their host was nowhere to be found. Was he dead too? Or had he killed Luna and then escaped, trapping the rest of them here in the manor?

They ended up splitting up into three groups-those who thought their host had something to do with this, those who thought the 'Light' had something to do with this, and those who thought the 'Dark' had something to do with this. Harry, Hermione, Marvolo, Severus, Lucius, Neville, Narcissa, Remus, Fred, George, Theodore, Rodolphus, Rabastan, McGonagall, Bill, and Blaise were all in the first group. Draco, Fenrir, and Bellatrix were in the second group. And Ron, Ginny, and surprisingly, Tonks were in the third.

The three groups were discussing what they knew, what they thought, and what they had learned. The largest group, however, was primarily focused on their host, and his invitation.

"But who even is Lord Coyote?" Neville asked. "I don't think I've ever heard of him before, and my gran knows almost all the Lords. She definitely would have mentioned him."

Hermione frowned. "I haven't heard of him either. His name's never come up, and I don't remember reading about him, not even in the paper. Does anyone here actually know him?"

Lucius shook his head. "I have never heard of a Lord Coyote or Coyote Manor before either." And when Lucius Malfoy of all people said something like that, they knew that really meant something.

Marvolo took over now. "Harry and I came to a realization some time ago," he said, drawing their group's attention to him. "There are some of us who should have been far more cautious in accepting the invitation to come here, and yet, we were not."

"I had doubts," said Harry. "This was all so weird and random, and frankly, could have, and has been dangerous. But I still came. I didn't even _consider_ not showing up."

Remus frowned, finger tapping on the arm of his chair. "Did anyone bring the invitation here with them?" he asked abruptly.

It was Hermione who nodded first, pulling it out from her little bag, and passing it over. "Here."

Harry, Neville, Fred, and George tried not to laugh. They shouldn't have been at all surprised that she had been the one to bring it with her. She was always over prepared, wasn't she?

Remus accepted the envelop as he pulled out his wand, casting a spell over it. It revealed nothing. Taking the letter out, he cast the spell again, to the same effect. He frowned, and then his eyes widened, and he raised the letter up to his nose, sniffing.

Harry blinked. "Uh, Moony?"

The werewolf lowered the letter, and then passed it over to Severus. "You should take a look. It smells like a potion. It seems familiar, but you know I've never been particularly skilled when it comes to all that."

Severus sniffed the letter as well, but smelt nothing, which wasn't all that surprising. Taking Remus' word for it, he cast a different spell, one he had created himself, and, much to everyone's surprise, the parchment began to glow with a faint blue light. The expression that crossed his face had those who had been taught by him fighting not to cringe back, worried he'd suddenly yell at them or assign them detention...even though they hadn't been students in years.

His onyx eyes snapped up, the look in them beyond dangerous. "Liquid Imperius," he declared. "The letter has been soaked in it. It is a diluted version of it, which explains why it did not show up on any scans we may have performed. You likely caught a lingering scent of tree bark, Lupin."

Harry pushed back his anger, and sighed deeply, running his fingers through his hair. "So the potion was meant to ensure none of us questioned what was happening, and come here regardless of any hesitation we might have been feeling." And then he jolted at the sound of a sudden crackle next to him. When he looked over, he found Marvolo beside him, crimson eyes narrowed and all but glowing with fury.

"He dared?" Marvolo questioned, voice deceptively soft but still clearly audible to all of them. But he said nothing more, and remained silent while the rest of them continued discussing things...

The clock struck midnight and outside, it began to rain.

Despite there being more than enough bedrooms for them all, everyone decided that no matter who they thought was behind what had happened, they weren't going to risk splitting up like that, and remained gathered and spread out in the parlour, as they were. Most fell asleep, a few kept speaking, keeping their voices down while they did so. As long as someone was awake, they could keep an eye on those who weren't.

Eventually, Hermione ended up dozing off against Severus, mid conversation, the man glancing at her, amusement in his eyes, though he made no move to shift her aside or wake her. Instead, he simply settled back and closed his own eyes, leaving Harry and Marvolo as the only two still awake. No one would be more cautious than them, and they all knew it.

They sat side by side, eyes trained on the others while they continued speaking quietly, still trying to figure things out, still trying to understand what was happening and why.

"Have you met any resistance recently?" Harry asked, fighting back a smug smile when he noticed Hermione's head resting on their old Potions professor's shoulder, his cheek pressed to her hair.

"None beyond the usual. Have you come across anyone who gave you any 'odd vibes', so to speak?" questioned Marvolo, his own gaze passing over Bellatrix and Tonks, who still seemed to be glowering at one another, even in the midst of sleep.

Harry shook his head. "Just the usual creeps." He sighed, stretching. "We would know hostility before most, anyway," he added, "so if this guy scouted us out, there's a good chance he knows that."

There was a pause, before Marvolo spoke again. "I have heard...rumours of your childhood."

The younger man froze for a second, and then forced himself to relax and calm down. "Oh?" he voiced.

"Indeed. There has been much talk of a cupboard, and treatment worse than a House-Elf's."

"...Ah."

"You plan on denying it?"

Harry hesitated, and then relented. "I guess there's no point in playing dumb. I was never particularly subtle about this stuff anyway." He sighed, then said, "No, I won't deny it."

Marvolo glanced at him out of the corner of his eye. "You were raised by Muggles?" But it came across as more of a statement than it did a question.

"I was. I lived with my mum's older sister-my Aunt Petunia, her husband Vernon, and their son Dudley. They...despised magic, and that's putting it lightly. I slept in the cupboard under the stairs until my Hogwarts letter arrived, and started cooking and cleaning and gardening for them once I was about five or so. I didn't get to eat much, which is why I've always been pretty small for my age, and they liked to yell a whole lot too, my uncle in particular."

"Neglect along with verbal abuse then," said Marvolo. "Did it ever go beyond that?"

Slowly, Harry inclined his head. "Oh yeah, there were beatings alright. Dudley was a big bully, and he and his gang enjoyed playing 'Harry Hunting', a game where they hunted me down before beating me up. My uncle wasn't much better. My aunt never really hit me, but she liked throwing heavy objects at me. They didn't like spending money on me either, so I never really had my own clothes. That's why nothing but my school clothes fit me. Things got a bit better after Sirius broke out of Azkaban. They learned he was my godfather, and were afraid of him, and I never actually bothered telling them he was innocent."

"And after his death?"

"Dumbledore was the only reason I got stuck going back there every year. I always asked him if I could stay somewhere else over the summer, but he kept refusing. He died then too, and since we were at war, there was no point in going back. I only returned to get things I'd left behind. Haven't gone back since. Life's a lot better without them, that's for sure." Now he glanced at the older man. "What about you? The orphanage?"

Marvolo already knew how Harry was aware of all this, so he didn't question it. "Not dissimilar to your own circumstances, although it was not my own blood torturing me. I had the added...pleasure of living there during the second World War, with constant threats of bomb drops, and having to live off rations which were often stolen by the older children. There was bullying too, yes, but I also had exceptional control over my magic, and used it to defend myself in any way I saw fit. I was going to be punished regardless of whether I retaliated or not, after all." He sighed softly, brushing hair out of his eyes. "I too asked more than once to remain either at Hogwarts, or go quite literally anywhere else, but was always refused."

The two were quiet again, for a moment, and Harry stretched his legs out, leaning into Marvolo, pressing their shoulders together, their arms touching.

"I guess we aren't that different after all, huh?" Harry mumbled softly.

Marvolo released a soft chuckle. "No, I suppose not," he replied just as quietly, his hand brushing against Harry's.

The rain continued to fall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Kudos?


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A dinner party gone wrong. A group of Light and Dark members gather for a celebratory dinner, which is cut short when one of them turns up dead. How did this happen? Who did this? Are they dining with a murderer? Well...yes, but would the Dark really be so eager to break the peace treaty? Would anyone?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to all readers so far!

Nothing changed once the sun rose. Everyone examined the doors and windows again, but they were still unable to leave, and were nowhere closer to figuring out what exactly was happening here.

It was Harry and Hermione who caught the others' attention that morning before they all headed off to find bathrooms and kitchens, when the two looked at one another.

"Buddy system?"

"Buddy system."

"Being alone in here is out of the question," said Harry to the others now.

"So let's stick in groups of twos," said Hermione. They weren't going to risk what had happened to their friend, to happen again. Not to any of them, whether they liked the person or not.

Oddly enough, there were no complaints this time, and in their pairs, they separated to freshen up, before Harry situated himself in one of the kitchens, going through cupboards and the pantry, pulling out pots, pans, and food, preparing to make breakfast for the large group. Bill, Severus, and Remus were the only other ones who knew to cook decently (no one wanted the twins around their food!), so they helped him. Marvolo knew how to as well, but why would he do it when there were others here to do it for him? Besides, he found it...intriguing to watch Harry move around the kitchen so effortlessly.

They all ate right there in the kitchen as the food was being cooked, some sitting, some standing, some chatting quietly, some silent, all thinking.

Who exactly _was_ Lord Coyote? Was he the one who killed Luna? Why invite so many of them if that was his purpose? Why soak their letters in that potion to _force_ them to come? By doing something like that, there was no way he had anything innocent on mind-this couldn't have been an impulsive thing, right? He must have planned this all out. He had to have.

Of course, there were still a few in the room who were under the impression the 'Dark' or 'Light' were behind this, but their thoughts were even more confusing, as they tried to make anything and everything a motive in order to find proof of their crimes, so to speak...

* * *

Not long after breakfast, Theodore and Blaise headed off to the nearest bathroom so the former could brush his teeth, and it was when they returned that the group finally had a new clue.

"I found this in the loo," said Theo, holding out a slim wand. "Did someone forget it?"

Everyone looked at it closely, but no one seemed to recognize it. One Priori Incantatem later revealed the last spell performed by the wand was a severing charm.

...Like the one that killed Luna.

But there was a problem. Nobody seemed to know whose wand it was, and none of them claimed it as their own. Unfortunately, there were no spells that could reveal that either. Too bad Ollivander wasn't here.

"There _are_ spells that can tell us what type of wand this is," said Remus. "Though, I can't say I know them."

"Oh, give it here already," demanded Draco. He snatched the wand from Theo, pulled out his own, and waved it over the found one, muttering under his breath. "It's an Ebony wand," he stated, "and contains a dragon heartstring." When no one said anything, he looked up, finding many shocked pairs of eyes on him, including his own parents. "What!?" he snapped. "I like wands, okay!?"

But knowing the type didn't help much, did it? Everyone pulled out their own wands, all of them still armed, trying to prove the ebony one wasn't theirs.

"Still," said Bill, "there's always a chance that someone here had a double."

"It was hardly a rare thing to do, back during the war," Rodolphus agreed, ignoring the glare his wife shot him.

There was a contemplative silence that was soon broken by a hesitant sounding Hermione. "Why don't we check it for fingerprints?"

She got quite a few odd looks at that, especially by those who had no idea what on earth she was talking about. It was Harry, however, who agreed with her.

"Might as well give it a shot," he said with a shrug. "What do we have to lose, right?"

"Very well," Marvolo conceded, because honestly, they had no other leads. The worst that could happen was nothing, after all, and that would just leave them as they currently were. And if this actually revealed something, then at least they would finally have some answers.

"What should we use?" asked Harry, who had a feeling he knew how his bushy haired friend was going to go about this.

"Hmm, baby powder, or turmeric, or chili powder, or something like that. And some tape, and dark paper or parchment," Hermione replied thoughtfully, thinking back, trying to remember.

And once they found adequate materials, she got to work, trying her best to get the prints off the wand, which was certainly a lot harder than she had thought it would be. Still, the brightest witch of her age succeeded, and took everyone else's prints too, half of them too curious to argue, or quelled by the dark look Marvolo gave them.

"What now?" questioned Ron, wiping his finger clean.

"I have to compare them now," said Hermione, enlarging the parchment since she, unfortunately, didn't have a magnifying glass on hand. Or anything that could be used similarly, as far as she could think of. "The only fingerprints-if this works, that should be on this wand, are Theodore's, Draco's, my own, and hopefully the owner's, if it isn't one of us three." And she fell silent as she examined and compared the prints.

"...Have you actually _done_ this before?" wondered Harry curiously as he watched her.

Hermione hesitated. "I, uh, went through a phase where I read a lot of Nancy Drew, and went around the house pulling fingerprints off door handles, and cutlery, and whatnot. I think I drove mum and dad mad. But that was years ago. Now shush, I'm concentrating."

There were very few in the room who knew what the girl had even been talking about, so the rest regarded her in confusion, wondering what in the world she was even trying to do here. Half of them hadn't even known what a fingerprint was until ten minutes ago, which honestly wasn't all that surprising. ...And was probably why they kept looking at their fingers now.

"Aha," voiced Hermione suddenly, a few minutes later.

"What have you found?" questioned Marvolo.

The young woman straightened up from where she had been hunched over the table, and looked up at the man, trying not to hesitate or cringe back. "There-there are four sets of prints on this wand," she said. "Three belong to who touched it now-Theodore, Draco, and myself, as I said there should be."

"And the fourth?"

Biting her lip, Hermione struggled to answer. "The fourth set...well...it seems to belong to-to Mrs Malfoy."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Kudos?


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A dinner party gone wrong. A group of Light and Dark members gather for a celebratory dinner, which is cut short when one of them turns up dead. How did this happen? Who did this? Are they dining with a murderer? Well...yes, but would the Dark really be so eager to break the peace treaty? Would anyone?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo. Thank you to all readers so far!

"I knew one of you did it!" Ron exclaimed, wasting no time in accusing Narcissa. He whirled around, eyes fierce. "See!? It was one of the 'Dark' members! I told you they hadn't changed!"

"My mother did nothing, Weasley!" Draco retorted furiously.

Despite how adamant Ron was, very few actually agreed with him. Narcissa had zero motivations for doing something like this. In fact, she had only met Luna a handful of time, and discounting their present circumstances, they had only spoken twice.

"And both of those times were in Harry's presence," the woman stated, "for we met in his bakery."

Harry nodded, acknowledging this. "That's true. I remember those conversations. They got along just fine, and there were no arguments or anything like that. And Luna was the one to do all the talking anyway, saying things she always does-did. I distinctly remember Narcissa seeming more amused than anything else."

But Ron didn't care. Neither did Ginny. Motives? They didn't care about those.

"You said these fingerprints were supposed to prove who used the wand!"

"And now they have! She did it!"

It was McGonagall who spoke now, her lips thin as she gazed at her old students with narrowed eyes. "The prints only prove who _touched_ the wand," she stated firmly. "It does not prove who used it. Use your heads, you two."

"I have never even _seen_ this wand before," Narcissa insisted, clearly fighting not to get angry, though she certainly wouldn't have been blamed if she did. "I came here to dine, not murder my boss' friend!"

Hermione agreed with that. "This is circumstantial evidence," she argued. "That's it. Yes, Mrs Malfoy's fingerprints are on this wand, and no matter what she says, there is no motive, no reason for her to have done this. She barely even _knew_ Luna!"

But the tension in the group only increased.

How could this have happened? How hadn't they noticed anything odd beforehand? Most of them knew their host had to be the one to have killed Luna. It was the only thing that made sense. And besides, once they thought back, when Luna had left the dining hall, the man hadn't been there. And when he had come back, she hadn't. And once he had left them in the parlour, he had simply vanished, and they hadn't seen him since. If that wasn't suspicious, then nothing was.

But _who_ was this mysterious man who owned Coyote Manor? And why hadn't any of them ever hear of him before? That in itself was one of the greatest questions here...

* * *

"Could he just be using a fake name?" Harry asked sometime later, once they had all gathered in the parlour again.

"A possibility," replied Lucius. "It would certainly explain why I have never heard of him."

Fred and George both frowned. "Then he's lying about the manor's name too?" they spoke in unison.

It was their older brother who nodded here. "Definitely." He raised a hand to cup his chin as his brow furrowed slightly in thought. "Not everyone name's their manor after their family name, and while it would make it a little less obvious, most people, Purebloods at least, would still know which family it belonged to."

"Then he took on an alias, not only for himself, but this place as well, because he knew what exactly he was going to do here, and had no desire for it to come back to him," stated Rabastan.

"Exactly," nodded Rodolphus, passing his wife who was across the room with Draco and Fenrir a look of irritation.

"But _why_?" questioned Hermione, sounding more than a little upset and confused. "Why do all this? What is the point? What is he trying to accomplish?"

"...Start another war, perhaps," replied Marvolo, though it sounded more like a statement than it did a suggestion. "Get both sides to doubt one another, to argue with one another, to cause a divide now that we get along, for the most part."

Another...war? ...What a horrifying thought.

* * *

It was about an hour later, when Narcissa made to leave the room, needing to use the bathroom, her sister Bellatrix going with her-buddy system and all that. The group preferred they be safe, rather than sorry, and so as long as they went together, it wasn't a concern...at least until fifteen minutes passed without their return.

At first they simply assumed she was taking a long time because she was a woman, and that was normal for women, right? But Lucius soon grew worried. Perhaps this was normal for others, but not his wife.

"I am going to go search for them."

"I'll go with you," said Harry, getting to his feet. "I need to move around." Staying in one place too long always reminded him of being locked in his old cupboard, no matter where he was or how large the room he was in.

Lucius nodded, and together the two left the parlour and began their search. The checked the nearest bathroom first-the one Luna had been found near, but it was empty. The one Theodore had found the ebony wand in was vacant too. Where had the two women gone?

"There!" exclaimed Harry suddenly, pointing in front of him. "That's Bellatrix, isn't it?" Surely no one else had hair like that.

They rushed over and found the witch collapsed on the ground. She was alive, though unconscious. ...But where was Narcissa? There was a door in front of them, only partially closed, and after exchanging a concerned glance, the men pushed it open, only to freeze at the sight before them.

Narcissa was laying on the light, tiled floor, in a pool of what was clearly her own blood.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Kudos?


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A dinner party gone wrong. A group of Light and Dark members gather for a celebratory dinner, which is cut short when one of them turns up dead. How did this happen? Who did this? Are they dining with a murderer? Well...yes, but would the Dark really be so eager to break the peace treaty? Would anyone?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo! Apologies for the wait. Not quite sure why this took so long when I had most of the chapter already written down. I've been lacking in the motivation department a bit more than usual recently. Thank you to all readers so far!

"No, no, no!"

"Go get the others," Harry ordered immediately. "Go!" He was shocked too, and badly at that, but this was Lucius' wife, and the man clearly wasn't thinking straight. Proof of that was when he simply did as told and hurried off. Harry just staggered to the wall opposite the door, and collapsed, sliding down to the ground, his entire body trembling, and his eyes wide.

This was the reason why he had opened a bakery instead of becoming an Auror! He didn't want to have to see, to face death again!

It didn't take very long at all for the rest to show up, and it was Marvolo who was first to kneel down before the young man, quietly asking him if he was alright and helping him to his feet. Meanwhile, Severus, who also knew a fair bit about healing, made his way over to Narcissa, scanning her with the same spell she had used before on Luna.

"She is gone," stated the man stiffly. "It appears she was killed in the same manner as Miss Lovegood-a severing charm to the neck, chest, and back."

He hadn't even needed to say it for them to know. In fact, it seemed like the only real difference was that there was a wand sitting beside the woman's body. A wand that definitely didn't belong to Narcissa, according to Lucius.

Silent and paler than usual, Draco picked it up, and used the same spell as he had the last time. "Vine," he informed them, his voice barely audible. "Phoenix feather core."

Once more, everyone pulled out their own wands. They were all still armed. But they knew that this proved nothing. It hadn't before, and it didn't now.

"B- She may have seen something," said Neville, gesturing down at an unconscious Bellatrix, unable to bring himself to actually say her name.

That made sense, and with a single rennervate, Bellatrix was conscious and on her feet within moments. She wasted no time in telling them what had happened, claiming she had been hit with a stunner-shot at her by someone with red hair.

"They came from behind," she informed them, the anger clear in her voice. "I only saw a flash of red in the mirror."

Red hair... The only redheads here were the Weasleys. Did that mean Bill, or Fred, or George, or Ron, or Ginny did this? Tonks was also an option, being a Metamorphmagus. She could easily have changed her hair-she always did.

"It's obvious is was that brat!" Bellatrix exclaimed, crazed eyes locked on Ron. "He was the one blaming Cissa for killing that Lovegood girl! This was revenge! It had to be!"

No one was sure how to answer that. As if to buy time, they set Narcissa's body in the same room they had left Luna's in, once more warding the door shut behind them as they left so no one could disturb the two. Then the rest of them made their way to the nearest sitting room, finally beginning to discuss things, starting with what Bellatrix had informed them.

Who was the red haired person she had caught a glimpse of in the mirror just as she had been attacked, and just before Narcissa had been killed?

"Bill was with Lucius and myself," said Remus after both Bellatrix and Ron had fallen silent.

Lucius nodded in agreement. "The three of us had been discussing the work he does as a Curse Breaker. We only ceased our discussion when I decided to find my-my wife."

Okay, so that was one redhead alibied.

As it turned out though, the Lestrange brothers were able to alibi Fred and George, because the four of them had been conversing together. And even Ginny was able to be alibied by Blaise, Theodore, and Neville, because the latter two of the four had been watching Ginny and Blaise flirt with each other in amusement. And with McGonagall having been speaking to Tonks, that just left one person.

No one was able to remember what Ron had been doing while Narcissa and Bellatrix had left their large group. No one could remember hearing him. No one could remember seeing him. And they all had to admit that there really was no way for them to know if he had left the room, simply because no one had been paying him any attention.

But Harry, and Hermione, and the other Weasleys, they _knew_ Ron. He didn't have this in him. He may have been an idiot, and completely reckless, but he couldn't possibly have this in him! Or so Ginny argued.

Harry however, frowned. "Technically speaking, everyone has it in them to kill," he stated without emotion. Most in the room knew that without doubt too, he knew, simply because most of them in this room, in their group here had killed. "And as an Auror, Ron _has_ to be able to use maximum force if necessary. If he didn't have it in him, he wouldn't have his current job."

Ron's eyes widened. "What the fuck, Harry!? I didn't kill them! I didn't do anything!"

"I'm not saying you did!" the emerald eyed young man retorted. "I'm just saying that claiming a person 'doesn't have it in them to kill' isn't a valid excuse."

Hermione looked between the two somewhat cautiously. When Harry and Ron argued like this, it almost always resulted in a falling out, before they ignored one another for a while, before awkwardly making up. But that wasn't going to happen for much longer. If they kept doing this, eventually they were just going to stop being friends, and she really didn't want to see that happen.

Whether it was lucky or not, it was Marvolo who decided to intervene. "Perhaps, Miss Granger, it might be best if you checked this new wand for fingerprints?" he suggested calmly. "Your previous examination was able to reveal something, after all."

That was a fair point. Narcissa's fingerprints had been on the wand used to kill Luna, planted there or not, so maybe checking this second one would reveal something too? It was worth the shot.

And so, just like before, Hermione got to work...only to stop before she had really even begun. "The wand's been wiped clean," she informed them with a frown.

"A spell?" voiced Severus, brow furrowed slightly.

Hermione cocked her head in clear thought. "I'd say physically wiped first-with a towel or cloth of some kind, and then a spell to prevent it from picking up other fingerprints. It's like an impervious charm of sorts."

"So...there are no fingerprints this time at all?" asked Neville.

The brown haired witch nodded. "None. Not even Draco's from when he checked it, or mine, even as I'm holding it now."

Harry frowned. "What are the odds of that?" he muttered.

Marvolo set a large hand on the younger man's shoulder. "This is no coincidence."

It was almost as the killer was fully aware of what they had done last time, and didn't wish to risk anything important being revealed. But...they were the only ones who knew about this. Those in their group were the only ones who knew what Hermione had done and discovered. So...didn't this mean that one of them had to be the killer?

Didn't it mean that one of them had killed Luna and Narcissa?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Kudos?


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A dinner party gone wrong. A group of Light and Dark members gather for a celebratory dinner, which is cut short when one of them turns up dead. How did this happen? Who did this? Are they dining with a murderer? Well...yes, but would the Dark really be so eager to break the peace treaty? Would anyone?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo! Things are looking good for this fic! I've only written the beginning of the next chapter so far, but I'm planning out chapter seventeen right now, so that's good, at least. Thank you to all readers so far!

It was time for lunch, but, understandably, no one was feeling particularly hungry. Harry ended up cooking anyway, even though there was no guarantee anyone would actually eat the food. It was a form of meditation for him, and right now, he really needed to calm down and think.

So used to cooking after all the years he had done so at the Dursleys', Harry worked on auto-pilot, lost in his whirling and confused thoughts. Lost enough that he didn't realize Marvolo had entered the room and was now standing, leaning against the back counter out of his way, watching him closely.

No matter who was behind this, what exactly were their motivations? They had just killed a member from both sides of the previous war. Had just killed a member of both the Light, and the Dark. So, unless they were trying to start something between them, between the two sides, were they just against these sides? Against both the Light and Dark?

Was Luna, dear, sweet, weird Luna just a victim of chance? Was she only killed because she had ended up being in the wrong place at the wrong time, all on her own? If that was true, then they were showing progression, because Narcissa and Bellatrix had been together, and both were grown women with admittedly good skill. It couldn't have been easy to catch them _both_ off guard.

"This man-this _killer_ must be quite powerful," said Marvolo suddenly, as if having heard Harry's thoughts. Harry wouldn't have been surprised if he had.

To his credit, the young man didn't even start, and simply glanced over his shoulder, finding the older man casually reclining against one of the counters, his crimson eyes locked on him. He turned back to the food. "Either that or he's just really bloody lucky," he replied tensely.

Marvolo inclined his head, acknowledging that, despite the fact that Harry couldn't see it. It was true that any one of them could have done this, realistically, but honestly, they didn't really want to consider one of them being behind this. They knew it was possible-they just didn't want it to be true.

"Is this person really trying to stir things up?" Harry asked abruptly, stirring the blood like sauce in a large pot. "Do they really want another war to break out? Why would _anyone_ want that!?"

Marvolo stepped forward and set his hands on his old enemy's shoulders. "Calm yourself, Harry," he said softly. "There is no use in getting worked up."

"But the war was horrible! They can't want all that death and destruction again. I don't..." he trailed off.

But Marvolo understood. Harry didn't want to have to fight again. In many ways, the younger man thought it was a miracle he had even survived this long. And now that things had finally become peaceful, they had some stranger stirring things up all over again. Sure, little rebellions had and occasionally still did pop up every now and again, but this was clearly targeting some of the main people involved, half of which had merely been children at the time!

The two fell silent for a while, and Marvolo once more moved out of Harry's way, watching him as he returned to his cooking. The Dark Lord understood what Harry was feeling, and he wasn't particularly pleased himself. Once both sides had agreed on peace, they had worked hard to obtain it. Members of both sides had worked hard to build a life that didn't revolve around a war.

And now everything they had achieved was at stake-at risk. Marvolo despised that. Whoever this person was, was going to learn why it was a terrible idea to cross the Dark Lord Voldemort.

Done cooking, Harry took at seat at the nearby table, and buried his head in his hands. Were the rest of them still in danger, he wondered? Who was going to be attacked next? There was really no way to tell, because moving from Luna to Narcissa was such a big jump.

...Actually, in that case, maybe they would make another jump. Maybe they would attack Severus or Lucius next-since the two more were skilled than Narcissa and Bellatrix. Or would they make an even bigger jump and attack Marvolo or Harry next? That was also a rather likely possibility.

The four of them needed to be very careful now. All of them did, really...

As the others were called for lunch, some chose to eat, while others didn't. Harry wasn't surprised, and thanked Remus quietly as he placed a stasis charm on the food. They could help themselves whenever they felt hungry, or just eat it for dinner. Better than letting it all go to waste.

But even as the hours passed, no one was really sure if they were willing to split up again. If moving in twos hadn't been good enough-hadn't protected, hadn't saved Narcissa, then, well, how large a group did they need to stay in to be kept safe?

And why the fuck couldn't they get out of this god damn manor!?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's it for now. Hopefully the next chapter will be finished quickly too. Comments? Kudos?


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A dinner party gone wrong. A group of Light and Dark members gather for a celebratory dinner, which is cut short when one of them turns up dead. How did this happen? Who did this? Are they dining with a murderer? Well...yes, but would the Dark really be so eager to break the peace treaty? Would anyone?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo! This is a more fillerish chapter, just cause these guys need to take a few moments to just chill. Not to mention make a bit of progression with the friendly (or more) relationships. Anyway, thank you to all readers so far!

Evening had fallen, and no one had made any progress in figuring anything out. They had had discussion after discussion, and finally, unsure if separating even for a few minutes was a good idea, they simply started using a spell to empty their bladders if needed, embarrassing though it was for some. Luckily, it was a spell that could be performed discretely, so no one could know when it was used by another.

Their host still made no return.

They had only been in this manor for twenty four hours, but felt as if they had been here for far longer. It was really quite irritating that they couldn't find a single way out. Irritating, discouraging, and even somewhat frightening. They were, essentially, locked up against their will! Harry knew if Sirius had been here with them, instead of wherever people went when they died, he likely would have been having some very bad flashbacks right about now.

They were all still in the parlour, still split up in their little groups, some chatting quietly, others brooding, and a few of them napping, trusting others to keep watch for the time being. They needed some time to unwind. Just for now.

Severus and Hermione were seated close together, talking about Potions again, though that was hardly knew for them since they had arrived here. If they weren't discussing their current circumstances, it was safe to say they were probably talking about Potions.

"Have you ever thought about selling any of these?" Hermione was asking curiously, brushing her hair behind her ear absently. "I mean, I understand why you're still teaching, especially now that things are getting better under Voldemort's rule, but you would make more money if you patented and sold these. Not to mention gain a lot of recognition! Your creations are wonderful!"

Severus blinked, surprised but trying his damnest to hide it. His name had never really had much of a good reputation behind it, and he figured no one would be willing to purchase potions he created if they knew he was behind it all. And yet...Hermione seemed so enthusiastic about it. It felt...strange. Strange, but...a good sort of strange. She was hardly the first to tell him this, but perhaps it was time for him to think about it a little more...

On the other side of the room, Bill and Remus were talking to Lucius, trying to keep him distracted-trying to get him to not focus on what had happened to his wife. Just for now. Just so he had a break from the grief. Right now they were discussing Remus teaching, versus him running a used bookstore.

"It must have been strange."

Remus shrugged half heartedly. "It was stranger to teach, honestly. As a werewolf, I've never really been able to hold down a job, so I've had more of them than you might think, some in his world, some in the Muggle word, most of them not in places you would, er, want children to be around."

Lucius inclined his had in understanding. "You've had jobs in neighbourhoods such as Knockturn Alley, then."

Bill got it now too. "Shady joints." He frowned. "Was any of it illegal?"

Remus chuckled lightly. "No, no, I refused to go that far, but a fair few of those jobs just barely toed the line."

"And Dumbledore was the one to approach you about teaching at Hogwarts?" Lucius inquired curiously.

The werewolf nodded. "He said he needed a DADA professor again, and because it was rather last minute, not to mention the 'curse' on the position, no one else was willing to take it. The place I had been working for at the time found out what I was, as I should have expected, and I was fired due to their fear. I suppose Albus found out, and then came to me and asked if I would take the Defence position for the year."

"Just for the year?"

Remus nodded again. "Longer if needed, but it was unlikely. No one was able to maintain that position for longer, so it was unrealistic to make plans for more than a year."

"Are you enjoying running that bookstore, at least?"

"Very much. It isn't the most popular, thanks to Flourish and Blotts being just around the corner, but it makes good, steady money." And besides that, he was happy because now that he owned the store himself, he wasn't going to have to worry about being fired. Not that the new laws would even allow that even if he did work for someone else.

Lucius inclined his head. "The previous laws against magical creatures were appalling. Marvolo refused to let them stand any longer, and had them changed or repealed as quickly as he good." Everyone knew that even though Lucius himself was the Minister, Marvolo was the one who had the final say in things. The Dark Lord simply despised paperwork, and preferred teaching, so he had delegated the task to the more politically savvy Lucius.

Further away, in one corner, sat Fred, George, Rodolphus, and Rabastan. Surprisingly enough, the four were discussing pranks. Everyone knew about the Weasleys twins, but, as it turned out, the Lestrange brothers had been pranksters too. The only difference was that no one had actually known about it. They were Slytherins, after all, and a Snake had an image to maintain. Not to mention the Marauders had been around at the same time*.

"Did you ever prank them?" asked Fred curiously.

"A few times," Rabastan replied with a nod. "They often blamed one another, because they refused to believe they would be caught by anyone else."

George snickered, but his opinion on his heroes didn't change one bit. Marauders for the win! ...Except Wormtail. Fuck that bastard!

Theodore and Neville, meanwhile, were seated nearby, talking about teaching again. Now that Theo had begun getting a bit more comfortable, he had started opening up a little with Neville.

"My father only discouraged any career option I had that wasn't following in his footsteps," he was saying quietly, "so I never really did have much of a chance to talk about it."

Neville nodded in understanding. "I know how you feel. My gran's always been adamant that I do what my dad did and become an Auror, even though I'm really interested in Herbology." He sighed. "So, what subject would you like to teach, if you did end up doing it?"

Theodore frowned slightly. "I've always enjoyed Transfiguration, so that, I suppose. Ancient Runes has always fascinated me as well, so there's that too..."

In a different corner of the room meanwhile, Ginny was situated in Blaise's lap, the two snogging eagerly, completely having forgotten where they were at the moment. With all her brothers busy, the girl had decided to use this time, er, productively. Blaise sure as hell wasn't complaining.

Tonks, Ron, Bellatrix, and Draco on the other hand, were all fast asleep, while a silent McGonagall and Greyback sat at opposite ends of the room, keeping a close watch over the others to make sure they were all safe...

Alone in one of the other corners of the massive room, Marvolo and Harry were seated side by side, trading ideas and theories. Unfortunately, the only thing they could really come up with, was that whoever this was, wished to restart the war they had worked so hard to end. It was the only thing that made sense to them. Well, relatively speaking.

What they were doing seemed clear, but who they were and why exactly they wanted to restart the war still remained a very big question that none of them had the answer to just yet. And this was only serving to annoy and anger both men.

Harry released an aggravated groan, and leaned into Marvolo, dropping his head on the older man's shoulder. "I don't get any of this," he spoke tiredly, his eyes falling shut.

Marvolo sighed softly, feeling utterly exhausted, but made no move to shove Harry off. He barely even noticed it, so focused on his thoughts as he was. But he had to agree that he didn't 'get' any of this either. And he hated it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *I don't remember the timeline fully, so let's just say this is true. Anyway, comments? Kudos?


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A dinner party gone wrong. A group of Light and Dark members gather for a celebratory dinner, which is cut short when one of them turns up dead. How did this happen? Who did this? Are they dining with a murderer? Well...yes, but would the Dark really be so eager to break the peace treaty? Would anyone?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo! Here's a longer chapter for you guys! Don't get used to it. If I had ended this one where I was originally planning, the next chapter would have been extremely short, so I decided to combine the two to make this one longer. Anyway, thank you to all readers so far!

Marvolo woke abruptly the next morning, to the very irritating sound of Bellatrix and Ron arguing yet again. Groaning inwardly, he tuned them out and made to sit up, only to suddenly notice a strange weight against him. Looking over, he realized that Harry had fallen asleep against him. ...Oh.

No one had ever let their guard down while around him, and he himself hadn't really ever lowered his guard around others. And now, Harry... Well, while it felt a bit odd, he found that he sort of...liked it, which was just as odd, in his opinion.

Harry himself woke up mere moments later, while Marvolo simply examined him in silence. Well, this was pretty embarrassing. And confusing, because what in the world was he even feeling right now? He sighed as he glanced around the room, pushing these strange feelings away. Unbeknownst to him, Marvolo was doing the exact same thing.

They had far more important things to do than worry about potential romances right now...

* * *

The group who could cook made breakfast, and after eating, they all once again split up in small groups to check the manor for any potential exits. They found none. Any attempts to destroy windows or walls didn't seem to work either, which was really quite aggravating. They were still trapped inside this manor.

They still weren't sure if this was something that had been planned ahead of time, but it seemed pretty likely, especially considering the amount of food and other provisions and so on. It appeared, to them, that their host was the only person living in the manor, and surely he wouldn't need all of this, right? It just wouldn't be practical.

To them, it made more sense that all this extra stuff had been brought in _because_ of their appearance. Of course, the Liquid Imperius soaking their letters all but solidified this happening on purpose. Agh, when they found that son of a bitch again, he wasn't going to be getting away from them!

Still, now that they were thinking about their host, they once more found themselves wondering where he had vanished off to. They had been here for over a day now, having arrived on the evening of the thirtieth, and today being the morning of the first, and they hadn't seen their host since that first evening.

They were under the impression that he had been the one to kill Luna, but then they had found Narcissa's fingerprints on the offending wand, which had contradicted that. And now Narcissa was dead too, but the person who had done it had red hair and had left no fingerprints at all.

While it was true they had been suspecting Tonks and the Weasleys, Ron in particular, since he had no alibi of any kind, couldn't it have just been possible that someone, like their host, had simply glamoured themselves? Hell, couldn't it be possible that Bellatrix had simply lied? Maybe they just wanted to frame a Weasley the same way Narcissa had been framed earlier.

But why?

* * *

Despite the danger, and knowing he probably _really_ shouldn't be doing this, Harry managed to sneak off on his own, desperately needing some time alone. There were just too many people here, too much going on. That was one thing he had actually _liked_ about his cupboard-it got him away from people. ...Maybe that wasn't a good thing though.

He wandered through the manor on his own, wand in hand, no actual destination in mind. He was lost in his thoughts-thinking about everything that had been going on. Why was all this happening? Who was doing this? What was the point? Were they not going to be satisfied until they really did restart the war? How bold did they have to be to do this to the Dark Lord and Boy-Who-Lived? To the Minister of Magic? To two Aurors? To Ministry workers? To professors? To them all?

He thought about his bakery, hoping his three workers were handling things well while he was gone. He really only trusted one of them to take proper charge, and found himself hoping the bakery had just remained closed during this time. It was a possibility, since neither he nor Narcissa had shown their faces recently, which was definitely something that should be considered odd. Honestly, he just hoped the place hadn't been blown up. He used a lot of Muggle appliances when he baked.

Thinking about the bakery then led Harry to think about Narcissa and Luna as well. Why them? What had they done wrong? He was really leaning towards them being victims of chance-wrong place, wrong time, because both of them hadn't even been very active members of the war. Sure they had participated and fought for their respective sides, but there were so many more currently locked up in this manor who had been, and still were bigger threats than the two women.

He thought about Severus and Hermione, and this strange relationship that was very obviously building between the two. They spent more time with one another than they did with their friends, and always seemed to be in deep discussion. It was odd to see them getting along so well, but at the same time, it wasn't. Hermione had always been the smart, mature one, so Harry had no doubt she had surprised Severus by being able to keep up with him in conversations. She was a wonder, that Hermione.

He thought about how well Theodore and Neville seemed to be getting along, especially because the two of them were the quiet ones who generally kept to themselves. Harry had seen Neville open up, and though he didn't know Theodore quite as well, he was pleased to see him engaged for once.

He thought about how much Lucius, Remus, and Bill seemed to be talking. That was an odd combination too, mainly just because of Lucius, but then again, Remus and Bill always were the calm and mature type, and were quite open minded. If any Light members would get along so well with the Dark Lord's right hand man and current Minister of Magic, it would certainly be those two.

He thought about Ginny and Blaise's budding relationship, wondering why he wasn't at all bothered, and thought about the Weasley twins conspiring with the Lestrange brothers too.

And he thought about Marvolo, still unsure of what exactly he felt around and about the man, unsure of why. They hadn't had any contact over the five years after the signing of the peace treaty. Marvolo had always sent someone to him if he needed something that couldn't be discussed in a letter, but really, they had both been living their own lives and hadn't needed anything from one another.

Harry hadn't been bothered when he had seen Marvolo here at the manor that first night, just surprised, and even a little pleased, and had found himself enjoying their conversations, even with everything they had been going on here. Marvolo hardly resembled the Voldemort Harry had fought against so often, and not just physically. The man treated him kindly and with respect, and Harry returned the sentiment, treating him in kind.

But Marvolo was just so confusing, and Harry-

-stopped abruptly as he began to feel something rather odd. His scar had just started to hurt, burning as it used to when he had been younger. He stood frozen in place, a hand over the lightning bolt shaped scar, his brow furrowed, and his emerald eyes narrowed in thought.

"What the hell?" he muttered in confusion and alarm. This hadn't happened for years now! His scar hadn't even _twinged_ all this time when he had been with Marvolo, not even when he had been sleeping, er, against him the previous night. So why was it hurting now? Why had it begun hurting so suddenly?

He rubbed at it gently, wincing slightly at the burn. There was no emotion in the pain like before. There was no anger, or frustration, or even happiness. There was nothing except the pain, and that only served to confuse him more, because it had been even longer since his scar had hurt without Voldemort-without Marvolo either being near or feeling a strong emotion.

His frown deepened. Actually, now that he thought about it, his scar hadn't hurt since the battle that had taken place during his sixth year-the last major battle before the peace treaty had been proposed and signed. So why, after five years, was it hurting now?

Needing to get to the bottom of this, and obviously connecting the pain to Marvolo, Harry lowered his hand, tightened his grip on his wand, and began to backtrack, heading right back to the large room everyone else was in. While most hadn't noticed he had left, the Dark Lord had, and was very clearly upset with him for leaving on his own without telling anyone.

Harry didn't care about that right now though. He walked over to the other man, sank down on the couch beside him, and quietly, and quickly, explained what had happened. Needless to say, Marvolo was quite confused.

Crimson eyes scanned over Harry's forehead. The scar looked a little inflamed, but fine besides that. "Does it still pain you?" he asked quietly. It was best if no one else heard about this yet. A fair few of them would worry, and they didn't need that just yet.

The younger man shook his head. "No, not anymore. Odd, isn't it, since I'm sitting literally right beside you?"

Marvolo thought the same and, somewhat cautiously, raised his arm and gently placed his hand on Harry's head, palm touching the scar directly. It felt warm, almost feverishly so, but there was no distress on Harry's face, not even in his eyes.

"It still doesn't hurt," Harry stated. "Not even now, while you're touching me."

So why in the world had it been hurting earlier?

* * *

Confused about the behaviour, so to speak, of Harry's scar, Marvolo and Harry both made their way to the spot where the younger man claimed he had been when he noticed his scar had begun to hurt. They knew they were there when it happened again, Harry's scar beginning to burn all over again.

Well, this was weird. It was clear the pain had nothing to do with the Dark Lord either time, which made no sense at all to either of them, because hadn't that been the whole purpose to the injury this entire time?

They tried searching the area, which was a small hallway with three or four small rooms, but they weren't able to find anything odd or out of place. But Harry's scar was still hurting him, and he kept reaching up to rub at it, wincing in pain. With a groan, he leaned back against he nearest wall, while Marvolo stood in front of him, a large hand on his shoulder, concerned with how pale he had gotten.

He opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off before he could even begin, when what was clearly a Patronus* bounded down the hall towards them, brightening the entire area up. It was a doe, and spoke in Severus' deep voice. They had just discovered another body.

Alarmed and concerned, Harry and Marvolo followed the doe as it led them to Severus, who was standing outside what appeared to be a bedroom, an arm around a pale looking Hermione who had her face buried in the man's chest, trembling slightly. Severus eyed the two of them grimly, but didn't say a word, and merely nodded towards the room, bringing his other arm around the young woman against him. The other two stepped forward in unison to look inside.

There was definitely a body in there. It was lain on the bed, the once crisp white sheets now stained liberally with dried blood. The body itself was that of a man-an elderly, well dressed man with dark, greying hair, and olive toned skin. He was most certainly dead, and was completely and utterly unfamiliar to the rest of them.

"...Who the hell is this?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *I was about to say 'And then a Persona approached them'... I think I've been gaming too much recently. Anyway, I'm still not sure how long this fic will be-I'm planning out chapter sixteen, which was chapter seventeen before I combined two chapters. But it doesn't seem like it should be much longer, so I won't be surprised if it doesn't even make it to twenty chapters. Comments? Kudos?


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A dinner party gone wrong. A group of Light and Dark members gather for a celebratory dinner, which is cut short when one of them turns up dead. How did this happen? Who did this? Are they dining with a murderer? Well...yes, but would the Dark really be so eager to break the peace treaty? Would anyone?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo! Thank you to all readers so far!

According to Severus and his basic examination, the mysterious stranger, whoever he was, had been killed in the same manner as both Luna and Narcissa, having suffered deep cuts to his chest, back, and neck, and died by bleeding out. But unlike the scenes with the two ladies, there was no wand left behind, from what they could see. Were none of them going to be framed for this one, then?

With no other option, and seeking to make things easy, they just put the man in the same room as the other two, before returning to one of the many sitting rooms to discuss things, every single one of them feeling more than a little confused by this utterly bizarre situation.

"But who is that guy?" questioned Ginny, brow furrowed and fingers discretely interlocked with Blaise's.

"He definitely isn't our...host," replied Hermione with a thoughtful frown, tapping her bottom lip slowly. "He doesn't look anything like him. Have any of you ever seen him before?"

There was denial all around. As far as they had known, their group, along with their host, were the only ones inside this manor. They hadn't even caught a glimpse of this other guy. Had he been here all along? Why hadn't they seen him? Had he been hiding from them?

"It wouldn't be that hard to stay hidden from us," Harry pointed out, brushing his fringe out of his eyes. "This place is massive, and we've been sticking together for the most part. He could've been hiding out in the room next to ours all night and we wouldn't even know."

That was actually a fair point, they realized. With the manor being as large as it was, even when they had all split up to look around, it still wouldn't have been particularly difficult for the man to remain hidden, so long as he quietly moved from room to room while avoiding them and their search.

But while this theory made sense to most of the others, Marvolo still had too many suspicions, and in his opinion, there was definitely something very...strange and off about this. So, because of that, he ordered Severus to examine the man's body more thoroughly. Since they didn't know the man, his privacy didn't matter as much to them as Luna's and Narcissa's did.

Severus did as instructed without complaint, the group splitting up with him, Marvolo, Harry, Hermione, Lucius, and Remus returning to the room they had set the bodies in.

Harry and Hermione stood close together, their arms linked as they tried their hardest to keep their eyes on Severus and the stranger, and not let them wander off to the-the other two. Lucius and Remus were standing close too, right behind them, their own arms brushing as Lucius sought silent comfort and reassurance. Marvolo stood not far from Harry, long arms folded across his chest, crimson eyes narrowed as he watched the proceedings closely.

Severus approached the bed the old stranger was on, wand in hand, and waved it in many complex patterns, chanting softly under his breath in a rapid stream of Latin as the others looked on. What he ended up discovering, was shocking indeed.

Slowly, Severus lowered his wand and turned back to face them, an odd, unidentifiable expression on his face, his eyes grim. "This man, at the very least, died a week ago."

No one said a word. A week? But...none of them had even heard of this manor a week ago, let alone killed this strange man. And yet, he had been killed an entire week ago?

"But...why hasn't he-?" Harry began with a deep frown, only to be cut off by Hermione, who clearly knew what he had been about to ask.

"The room we found him in must have some sort of preservation charm on it, to keep the b-the body from decomposing in any way."

"Like the Chamber of Secrets, you mean?"

"Mm hmm, just like that."

Now that they all thought about it, had they ever even entered that specific room before now? Had that door even existed? When the small group rejoined with the others and passed along what they had learned, along with their theories, no one could quite remember that room.

"We would have smelled him," said Greyback with what appeared to be a grimace. "The cub and I," he nodded towards Remus, who nodded in agreement, but avoided the older werewolf's gaze.

"Not many spells can stop that," Remus explained, "but a preservation charm can."

"And it makes sense that the room was concealed this entire time," Neville pointed out. "We searched this entire manor more than once, and everyone's said they're positive they haven't seen that room before."

"Which means," the usually quiet Theodore took over, "that unless one of us is lying, that room must have been hidden on purpose. That man's body was very likely laying in that room this entire week."

But while that was indeed shocking, it still didn't answer to who this was, or why he had, very obviously, been killed. Was he an enemy of Lord Coyote? But then, why kill him and then just leave him in the manor like this? Why not attempt to get rid of the body? It made sense not to do the same for Luna and Narcissa, because they had only just been killed, but this man had been dead for days now.

Did that mean his body had been left like that on purpose too? Left for them to find like the other two? But why would that be? Why?

Why?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's it for now. Comments? Kudos?


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A dinner party gone wrong. A group of Light and Dark members gather for a celebratory dinner, which is cut short when one of them turns up dead. How did this happen? Who did this? Are they dining with a murderer? Well...yes, but would the Dark really be so eager to break the peace treaty? Would anyone?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo! I think we're getting pretty close to the end here. I'm currently planning out chapter sixteen, and still doubt this will go over twenty chapters. Anyway, thank you to all readers so far!

Noon arrived and the clouds outside darkened and thickened once again. Everyone was still gathered in the sitting room, but it was oddly quiet. They were all lost in thought and confusion, trying to figure out what was happening, trying to understand why.

Harry, seated on a small couch with Marvolo at his side, was suddenly hit with a very strange revelation. His head snapped up, even as his body tensed and, hesitantly, he began to speak. "What...are the odds that the man, the dead one, is...actually Lord Coyote?"

Those words certainly created a whole lot of confusion. Well, more confusion, at any rate. But surprisingly, or perhaps not, it was Lucius who was able to put his thoughts into words first, and spoke.

"It is entirely...possible," he agreed, drawing everyone's attention towards him. "And it would also explain quite a bit."

"How so?" wondered Tonks with a frown, though she listened closely, her hair lightening to a soft brown.

"The man we found resembled a foreigner, did he not?" said Lucius. "It is possible that he only recently moved to the country."

"Ah." Bill's expression showed he understood where the older man was going with this. "That would explain why no one seems to have heard of him before, and it isn't exactly rare for people, Lords included, to move to new countries. It extends their influence." As someone who had spent a fair bit of time working at Gringotts, he knew what he was talking about.

Lucius nodded in agreement. "Purebloods are always seeking to extend and increase what influence they have. I myself have made a show in foreign countries, both in and out of Europe."

Hermione folded her arms across her chest, and frowned. "Alright, I understand that, but that still leaves a very big question."

Neville understood, and took over. "If the dead man we found is really Lord Coyote, then who exactly was the one pretending to be him-pretending to be our host?"

No one had an answer. Why had their host done all this? Why had he killed the real Lord? Why was he pretending to be him? Why had he decided on this 'dinner party'? Why had he soaked their invitations in Liquid Imperius? Why had he killed Luna and framed Narcissa for it? Why had he killed Narcissa and framed a redhead for it?

Because, now that they had found the man they assumed to be the real Lord Coyote, every single one of them was suspicious with their host, rather than of one another, as a fair few of them had been this entire time.

Now they were all angry...

* * *

Darkness was beginning to fall, and all twenty three of them were plotting together, some interacting a little more reluctantly with others, still not comfortable with a certain number of them. Just because they had to work together now, didn't mean they had to like one another, after all.

Now that Ron had stopped being unnecessarily biased, he started thinking, finally proving why he was an Auror. "Do you suppose the real Lord Coyote is the one who actually planned this party, and then the fake took it all over?"

His sister frowned and looked at him. "So...so you think the real Lord wrote those invitation letters, but the fake one used that potion on them to make sure we showed up?"

Ron nodded. "Makes sense, doesn't it? The handwriting on the letter didn't look familiar, and it was worded politely too. It asked for us to come here, not demanded, and this was supposed to be a thanks for what we did in the war-thanks for the peace we helped bring back. Nothing about that sounds odd, really, which makes me think, like Gin said, the real Lord is the one who wanted this, and the fake decided to take over, make sure we came, and did...what he did."

It was Harry who first understood Ron's reasoning. "The real Lord must've been planning this for a while if he was killed a week ago. The fake probably had to prepare for us. He was probably the one to charm that door he hid the real one's body in to stay hidden, and he probably removed all the paintings too."

"Paintings?"

Harry inclined his head. "Didn't you notice? There isn't a single painting on the walls of this entire manor. I've been in a fair number of manors myself, and even own a few, and for a place this big to not have even one? That isn't normal."

Draco, who had been silent up until now, spoke. "So he removed them since the painting people would be able to point out he isn't who he's been saying he is, no matter his disguise or what he tried to do to silence them. The best and easiest thing would be to just get rid of them and hide them somewhere. There's probably another hidden room where he's been keeping them all."

All of this was indeed possible, but either way, they had no proof. They still had far too many questions, and not nearly enough answers...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There we go, that's it for now. The next chapter is already written-I just have to motivate myself to edit through it, so hopefully it should be up soon. Comments? Kudos?


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A dinner party gone wrong. A group of Light and Dark members gather for a celebratory dinner, which is cut short when one of them turns up dead. How did this happen? Who did this? Are they dining with a murderer? Well...yes, but would the Dark really be so eager to break the peace treaty? Would anyone?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo! Thank you to all readers so far!

Now that everyone was positive their host was behind this, they decided to once more search the manor, again splitting up into pairs. They knew what to be on the lookout for now, and knew what they needed to do to be more careful. They weren't going to succumb to another attack. Not this time.

Harry and Marvolo, once more partnered together, walked through the manor, speaking quietly as they searched, and soon enough, Harry broke off mid sentence with a hiss of pain, a hand clamping down over his forehead.

"Harry?" Marvolo moved in front of him immediately, eyes narrowed. "Your scar is paining you again?"

"Yeah. Sss, dammit, what the hell is this!? Why does this keep happening!?"

They looked around, noting that they were in the exact same spot where his scar had been hurting earlier as well. So why did it only hurt in this one spot? This obviously couldn't possibly be normal!

Suspicious and curious, the two began looking around closer, and since there was nothing obviously wrong, Harry used the pain in his scar as a compass of sorts, trying to get it to sort of...direct him to whatever was causing said pain. Hey, it was better than nothing, and also actually seemed to be working, because Harry soon found something.

He came across what appeared to be a cupboard under the nearby staircase, its door a plain white, and though it looked innocent enough, his scar burned like hell as he stood beside it.

He knelt down, tried to open the little door, and realized it was locked. Well, he supposed that wasn't all that odd. He pulled out his wand and tapped the handle. " _Alohomora_ ," he intoned clearly. He heard a soft snick of the lock being undone, and once more took the handle, this time pulling the door open.

The moment he looked inside, all the air in his body left him at once.

Identical. It was identical. His breathing quickened. It was completely identical to his cupboard, right down to the doodle of a garden snake (Patrick) he had been friends with when he'd been very little. _Oh, Merlin. What is this? What the hell is this!? How is this possible!? What the fuck is going on!?_

No, no now wasn't the time to start panicking, Harry told himself, fists clenching. There was obviously something very wrong here, and he had to check this out. He couldn't allow himself to start freaking out and lose focus on what was clearly important.

He closed his eyes, took a few breaths, and then realized he could feel magic. Strong magic. Curious, he focused closer, and realized this magic seemed to be coming strongest from the floor. He opened his eyes and lowered down further, laying on the floor, his body half in the cupboard now, and reached out to examine the floorboards.

There were definitely spells here, he realized, and these spells were most definitely concealing something. Eyes narrowed, he took up his wand once more, and started performing a few spells he had picked up from certain possibly questionable people. Nothing worked. Nothing turned up. Nothing happened.

Annoyed, because he was one hundred percent positive that there was something here, he looked even closer, and noticed that one of the wooden floorboards was sticking out just slightly. Setting his wand back down, he used his fingers to carefully pry it up out of place. "Ha! Gotcha, you bugger," he muttered triumphantly.

He pulled the board up completely, and peered into the darkened space. It wasn't that big, much smaller than the one he had used to hide things back at Number Four. But it's smaller size made it obvious that there was something hidden down there.

A Snitch. Harry blinked. It was a Golden Snitch, that looked like every other Snitch he had seen. "Huh..." Curious, he picked it up, and the second he touched it, his scar began searing. He involuntarily cried out in pain, and dropped the small golden ball, alarmed. His yell had been loud enough that Marvolo, who had been searching the other end of the hall, had heard him and hurried over.

"Harry? Harry, what's happened?" He lowered down to his knees as Harry rose to his own, and he was startled to see that the young man's scar had begun to bleed. He pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket, and gently pressed it to Harry's scar. "What happened here, Harry?" he asked, trying to figure out what had gone on while he'd had his back turned.

Keeping the handkerchief pressed to her forehead, Harry haltingly explained everything. He explained how the pain in his scar had led him to this cupboard, how he had unlocked it, how it looked like his own, how he'd searched it and found the Snitch. "Don't touch it!" he warned quickly as the older man reached down, having ample reason, because doing so had hurt like a fucking bitch.

Marvolo frowned as he listened, crimson eyes scanning over the little cupboard, appalled and furious to realize Harry had once slept in an identical one when he'd been a child. Telling himself to refocus, he, despite Harry's insistence, picked the Golden Snitch up. It didn't hurt him in any fashion, but he was able to feel magic coming off of it-strong magic. A type of magic that didn't belong on an object such as this.

His eyes narrowed, and he pushed his own magic into it, trying to identify it, and it took only seconds before his eyes, which had fallen shut, suddenly snapped open.

Harry blinked as he watched. "Er, Marvolo? What's wrong? What happened? Did it hurt you?" he asked in concern, eyes searching the man's face for any sort of distress or pain.

The Dark Lord looked at him, expression more serious than Harry was sure he had ever seen it. "This Snitch, Harry, is no normal Snitch."

"It-it isn't?"

"No. This Snitch is a Horcrux."

Harry's eyes widened. "A Horcrux!?"

"Yes. And if this magic in it belongs to who I believe it does, then this Horcrux belongs to none other than Albus Dumbledore himself."

"...What the actual fuck?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's it for now. Comments? Kudos?


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A dinner party gone wrong. A group of Light and Dark members gather for a celebratory dinner, which is cut short when one of them turns up dead. How did this happen? Who did this? Are they dining with a murderer? Well...yes, but would the Dark really be so eager to break the peace treaty? Would anyone?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo! I love how frustrated some of you get every time you read this. Thank you to all readers so far!

Harry was beyond alarmed. Dumbledore had-has a Horcrux.  _Albus Dumbledore_ created a  _Horcrux_. This didn't make any sense! What the fuck was going on!?

Taking the Snitch with them-Marvolo carrying it since it seemed to cause Harry great pain, the two of them regrouped with the others, who were waiting for them. Harry explained what had happened, and they showed everyone the Snitch. Some of them even touched or held it, yet it only really hurt Harry, and had no affect on anyone else.

Even now his scar was burning, just from being in the same room as it. But that was fine. Harry knew how to push the pain away, knew how to pretend it didn't exist. He was used to that. Besides, they had far more important things to discuss right now.

Marvolo immediately questioned those who personally knew Dumbledore, demanding to know whether any of them had been aware that he had created a Horcrux of all things.

Severus and McGonagall hadn't had any idea or knowledge of this. Remus, Bill, Tonks, and the twins didn't either. Neither did Ron, or Hermione, or Ginny. Not even Harry had known. Had anyone, they wondered? Had anyone been told? Moody, perhaps? Maybe Kingsley? What about Fawkes?

But that brought them to another point. Having a Horcrux made a person immortal, even if it was just one. And they had proof of that right there in the room with them, because that was exactly what Marvolo had done. He had two Horcruxes-Nagini and Harry, and had even had more once upon a time, though he had destroyed them to help regain his sanity.

Hermione, sitting beside a tense Severus, worried her bottom lip. "If...if Dumbledore has what is clearly a not destroyed Horcrux, and he was killed by Voldemort-" her brown eyes flickered to said man, "-doesn't, well, doesn't that mean he's still alive?"

Harry inclined his head stiffly. "He can't have died if he has a Horcrux. That's a fact. There's no getting around it. A Horcrux equals immortality. And according to Marvolo, the magic in that Snitch is Dumbledore's magic, which is also a fact. And if his magic is in the Snitch, then that also means that this Horcrux is his-that's a fact too."

"Meaning logically, Dumbledore is still alive."

"He has to be. This Horcrux is still fully intact," Harry stated. "I've destroyed a Horcrux before myself," he added, leaning into Marvolo's side, as if in apology. "I know what they look like when they're destroyed. This one has none of those signs. Not to mention it's making my scar hurt. Why would it do that if it were destroyed?"

Marvolo nodded once. "It is still fully active," he confirmed. "However, Dumbledore's life is not the only thing we have to consider."

Lucius blinked, and then understood. "I see."

Remus got it too, and grimaced.

"What's wrong?" Fred and George questioned in unison.

The younger werewolf decided to elaborate. "We found the Horcrux in this manor," he stated. "A manor that belonged to Lord Coyote. Lord Coyote has been killed. Killed a week before we arrived here. Arrived in this manor, where we have all been invited via invitations soaked in Liquid Imperius. Arrived in this manor where two of our members have been killed as well."

Severus was a smart man, and understood immediately. "You are all suggesting that Dumbledore created a Horcrux and never informed anyone about it, implying he never truly trusted any of us the way he said he did. Because we had no way of knowing otherwise, we all assumed he had been killed by Marvolo. However, due to his Horcrux, he survived."

Rodolphus took over. "He's been lying low these past five years, and I doubt any of us know why, but he must be the one who killed the real Lord Coyote, pretended to be him, and called us all here."

And it didn't take them long at all to understand what wasn't being said. They were suggesting that Dumbledore had killed Luna and Narcissa. They were saying that Albus Dumbldore himself was the one behind this all.

But...how could that be possible?

It was Harry who had more proof, reluctant though he was to admit it. "I found that Snitch in a cupboard under a set of stairs," he spoke abruptly, drawing everyone's eyes to him. "This cupboard looked...looked completely identical to the cupboard under the stairs in the house I lived in as a kid, with my Muggle relatives. This cupboard..."

Hermione's eyes widened. "Harry, you don't-"

The raven haired young man shook his head. "I need to say this, Hermione. I need to explain it." Few of them noticed him lean further into Marvolo. Few of them noticed Marvolo's arm come around his lower back, holding him in place. "Some of you might know this, because there have been plenty of rumours over the years, but when I was a kid," he began, "before I learned I was a wizard and that magic actually existed, I used to sleep in the cupboard under the stairs."

Remus flinched and looked away, causing Greyback, who had noticed the gesture, to frown, though he said nothing. Had his cub been aware that the kid had been suffering, he wondered?

Hermione bit her lip, tears already pooled in her eyes. Ron had clenched his fists, a gesture mimicked by Neville. Fred and George had pressed into one another, eyes narrowed in mutinous anger, and Bill too looked upset. They had known, all of them, but hadn't been able to do anything to help.

Harry just continued. "I not only slept in this cupboard, but practically lived in it. Sometimes I'd be locked in it for days at a time, no food, no bathroom breaks, not even any light." He paused and took a breath.

Draco looked horrified. He had heard the rumours at Hogwarts, and had always assumed they were just idiotic things being made up, that the Saviour was just trying to gain sympathy and attention. So he had never believed it. Lucius was in the same predicament, having been told by his son, but figuring it was just the exaggeration of children.

But it hadn't been the exaggeration of children at all. No, it had been the ignorance of adults.

"I told Dumbledore about it," Harry said, having gathered himself enough to keep going. "I even showed him the cupboard. It was still a problem, even after I started at Hogwarts, because my relatives were horrible people. They had given me my cousin's second bedroom, but if they wanted to punish me without getting their hands dirty like usual, they would just lock me back up in there. There was no way I could fight back. So I went to Dumbledore, told him everything, and when he came to check things out, showed him the cupboard."

No one said a word, everyone listening in horrified silence.

"I begged to be taken away from there more than once. Begged to not be sent back there more than once. And every time I did, he shot me down. He told me I was exaggerating. He told me I should be grateful for what I had been given."

What on earth had there been to be grateful about!? Hermione wanted to scream, and grabbed Severus' hand, holding it tight, not even realizing it. He didn't even flinch, even though she must have been crushing his fingers. His own dark eyes were locked on Harry, his jaw clenched tightly, tight enough it was a wonder he hadn't cracked a tooth yet.

"There's no reason at all for a complete stranger to know anything about my childhood," said Harry slowly. "Especially not one who only recently moved to this country. So what are the odds that an imitation-right down to the  _finest_  details, are right here in this manor? What are the odds that the Horcrux we found is a Snitch, like the same ones I caught, seeing as I always played as a Skeeker? What are the odds of any of this happening here now?"

Dumbledore was alive. He was in this manor. And he wanted them to know it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's it for now. Unfortunately, I have also caught up with my notes, which means I have absolutely no idea what's going to happen next. With that means I also don't know when I'll have the next chapter for you. Either way, comments? Kudos?


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A dinner party gone wrong. A group of Light and Dark members gather for a celebratory dinner, which is cut short when one of them turns up dead. How did this happen? Who did this? Are they dining with a murderer? Well...yes, but would the Dark really be so eager to break the peace treaty? Would anyone?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo! Sorry about the wait. I hit a bit of a block. Thank you to all readers so far!

It was midnight. Despite the shock they were in, despite the disbelief they felt, they all knew what they had to do next. They had to find their 'host'. They had to find Dumbledore. They didn't want to believe any of this, but there were just so many clear  _facts_ , that they just couldn't help it. But no matter their opinion, they were all, every one of them, alarmed. In some cases there was a great deal of betrayal as well. They had trusted Dumbledore, trusted him with secrets, trusted him with their lives, mourned for him after his... _apparent_  death. And now he had done  _this_.

But what now? Even if all they had learned was the truth, even if they knew they had to find him, how did they even do this? How did they go about it? They hadn't seen Dumbledore since their first day in this manor. Was he even still here? It had been a while even since Narcissa's... Well, there was no proof he was still here. So how could they do this.

"The answer is simple," Marvolo stated firmly. "We call for him. He will not resist being called out to face us. Dumbledore always desires attention."

Harry was the first to react to those words by shaking his head. "That's not good enough in this case. Even if it works, we shouldn't just do it like that. We need to thinks things through first," he explained patiently. "We need a proper plan."

The irony of their reactions and words was not lost on anyone.

The group discussed, argued, and discussed some more, unsure of where to start, and no one was sure how much time had passed before they finally reached an agreement. They would examine the bodies of the three...the three dead more closely. Perhaps they could learn something more by doing so.

So they left the parlour room they were in and made their way towards the room they had left the three in. Tonks and Ron unsealed the door and they all piled in, only to pause in place in the doorway.

"What the-?"

"Isn't this-?"

"We're in the right room, aren't we?"

"Where's Luna!? And where's Mrs Malfoy!?"

The beds where Luna and Narcissa had been placed in were empty. The only bed still occupied was the one with the man-the real Lord Coyote. He was still lying there, still dead, but Luna and Narcissa were nowhere to be seen.

"Where-where did they go!?" Neville questioned in shock.

"I-I don't know," Hermione replied with a shake of her head. "They're dead! They can't have just gotten up and walked out on their own!"

"Hmm, not to mention Ron and I put spells on the doors that they couldn't have been able to remove," Tonks supplied with a frown.

Fred and George exchanged a glance. "Would Dumbledore be able to take the spells down?" they asked in unison.

It was Ron who nodded. "They wouldn't be a problem for him."

Well that answered one question then, didn't it? Dumbledore had lowered the wards the two Aurors had placed on the door, and taken Luna and Narcissa away. ...But why? What more did he want with them? He had already killed them. What more was he planning to do? It was clear that those in the group who were closer to Luna and Narcissa were really starting to get upset now, more so than they had already been. No one could blame them. This was insanity!

There wasn't much they could do here in this room now. Really, they had come to check on the two women, already having examined the man well enough, and now that the two were missing, there was no reason for them to remain in here any longer. They were sure that finding and confronting Dumbledore was going to lead them to Luna and Narcissa.

And that left them with the Horcrux. They had to deal with that first, didn't they? They couldn't just leave it be- _Marvolo_  and  _Harry_  couldn't just leave it be.

"Considering where we are, and what we do and do not have access to, I believe there is only one option when it comes to destroying it," Marvolo spoke calmly.

Harry's eyes widened immediately, and he reached out, grabbing the Dark Lord's hand before he could even raise his wand. "Are you kidding me!? No!"

"Harry-"

"Calm down, just-just calm down, alright?" He ignored the many pairs of eyes on them, took a breath to calm himself down, then spoke again. "One, you can't do that in here with so many people in the room, or else you're going to end up killing all of us-seriously, burning to death doesn't sound fun. Two, shouldn't the Horcrux be examined first? If this is the first and only one Dumbledore had and has, then shouldn't it contain half his soul? Won't that make it like your diary one? It was basically sentient. Can't this one maybe be the same?"

"Wait a minute," Hermione interjected before Marvolo could speak.

"Granger?"

"I just..." She bit her lip, brow furrowed, and after a moment, said, "What if the shade in the Horcrux managed to get a body of its own, and then did all this? That's possible, isn't it?" She looked up at Marvolo. "That's what your diary shade nearly did, right?"

"Wait, what happened?" questioned a confused looking Rabastan.

It was Harry who answered though. "It was independent to Voldemort himself, possessed Ginny," he noticed Ginny paling there, and sent her an apologetic look, "attacked Mrs Norris-the caretaker's cat, along with a few Muggleborns and a ghost. It nearly succeeded in getting its own body too."

Ginny, still pale, and clutching Blaise's arm tightly, nodded. "If Harry had been any later in what he did, I-I wouldn't be here right now."

"So you believe the real Lord Coyote was possessed by the Snitch Horcrux, prepared all of this, then had his life force drained which resulted in his death, and the shade gaining a body of its own?" Severus questioned.

Harry and Hermione, clearly on the same page, nodded. Yes, that was exactly what they were implying. The diary shade had only failed because Harry was able to stop him in time, but would Lord Coyote have been able to do the same? Would he have even been able to fight back in any way? It had taken Ginny a while to even grow suspicious of what had been happening to her, but...

"How do we do this?" asked Remus curiously. "Is there any way we can verify this?"

The diary had been simple, since all they had needed to do was write in it, but this was a Snitch. So how would it work?

"Why not try to open it?" Ron suggested abruptly.

"Open it?"

"Yeah, all Snitches open-how else do you think they get the wings in there?"

Many glances were exchanged, but no one actually protested, because now that they thought about it, that was actually a pretty good idea. Well, a necessary idea. Because they  _had_  to figure this out. They had no choice.

But who would do it? Harry, of course, couldn't even touch the Snitch without it causing him excruciating pain, Marvolo didn't know a thing about them since he had never cared much about Quidditch, Ron's was a Keeper, so it was Draco, who had played the position of Seeker, who held out his hand.

He was given the Snitch and, with a frown, examined it closely. He couldn't see anything odd about it, but he hadn't expected otherwise. Instead, he simply did as the group wanted. He dug his finger nails into the thin notches, and opened the Snitch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nope, the block isn't gone yet, so I have no idea when the next chapter will be done. Comments? Kudos?


End file.
